R5: The pike and shot era infantry was a combination of ranged musketeers and melee infantry (one of the famous examples are spanish tercios). The idea was that the muskets will be able to shoot at the enemies at range, and the pikes would protect them against cavalry charges, which the muskets couldn’t defend against.
The invention of the socket bayonet eliminated the need for melee-only infantry, since any infantry man could shoot while having the bayonet mounted, turning the gun into a short pike that was dangerous enough to deter cavalry charges, especially in thicc formations.
Neoliberal_Nightmare on
Ridiculous that it took like 200+ years from inventing the gun to realising you should stick a spike on it.
Even in the 30 years war if musketeers got into melee they’d just start clubbing away.
Glaernisch1 on
Afterwards, guys sticking a gun on an armoured vehicle.
catthex on
Okay fine I’ll boot up mountain blade Napoleonic
chrisGPl on
I mean it’s kind of a misconception that pikes or bayonets could reliably hold off cavalry, many infantry lines that didn’t have time to form squares were shattered even by frontal cavalry charges in the Seven Years’ war.
Amazing-Fix-6823 on
But now the horse guys are riding around guns ahhhhhhh
aguidom on
Damn, now I want to play Empire Total War again.
throwthatbabythanks on
Pike and musket combo broke the melee meta forever
Superunknown-- on
And then soldiers spent all of World War I laying in ditches because weapons technology outpaced military strategy development… so they just kept charging like it was 1845 and getting ripped to shreds. So messed up and pointless
saltnotsugar on
Essentially stab stick plus boom stick equals stab boom stick.
ghosttowns42 on
Thanks for reminding me that this song exists, I needed an earworm to ruin the rest of my night! 😅
11 Comments
R5: The pike and shot era infantry was a combination of ranged musketeers and melee infantry (one of the famous examples are spanish tercios). The idea was that the muskets will be able to shoot at the enemies at range, and the pikes would protect them against cavalry charges, which the muskets couldn’t defend against.
The invention of the socket bayonet eliminated the need for melee-only infantry, since any infantry man could shoot while having the bayonet mounted, turning the gun into a short pike that was dangerous enough to deter cavalry charges, especially in thicc formations.
Ridiculous that it took like 200+ years from inventing the gun to realising you should stick a spike on it.
Even in the 30 years war if musketeers got into melee they’d just start clubbing away.
Afterwards, guys sticking a gun on an armoured vehicle.
Okay fine I’ll boot up mountain blade Napoleonic
I mean it’s kind of a misconception that pikes or bayonets could reliably hold off cavalry, many infantry lines that didn’t have time to form squares were shattered even by frontal cavalry charges in the Seven Years’ war.
But now the horse guys are riding around guns ahhhhhhh
Damn, now I want to play Empire Total War again.
Pike and musket combo broke the melee meta forever
And then soldiers spent all of World War I laying in ditches because weapons technology outpaced military strategy development… so they just kept charging like it was 1845 and getting ripped to shreds. So messed up and pointless
Essentially stab stick plus boom stick equals stab boom stick.
Thanks for reminding me that this song exists, I needed an earworm to ruin the rest of my night! 😅